AIE at PAX Online 2020

THE EVENT

PAX is known as one of the premier Gaming events of the year, showcasing the best soon to be released games and emerging young talent from across the world. AIE has been a constant fixture at these events, and 2020 was no exception.  

Generally held each year in a number of cities across the globe, draws tens of thousands of people, and features a number of exclusive interviews, Q + A’s, exhibitor booths from both leading global and independent local games developers, gaming tournaments and video game freeplay for new and upcoming titles. In 2020, with so many of us staying at home due to the ongoing pandemic, PAX decided to host a 9 day long, 100% online event running 24 hours a day for free. 

While an online event was always going to be very different for attendees who’ve visited PAX in person over previous years, this year’s event still lived up to the hype. And just like previous years, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment was once again in attendance, taking advantage of the unique online experience to give attendees a glimpse into what studying for a career in Games or Film VFX might look like. This year the Australian and American AIE teams, including our professional industry based teachers, hosted a number of events including livestreams, presentations, PC and virtual reality games demonstrations from all AIE campus’s, as well as the opportunity to download some of our latest and best student games. 

AIE STUDENT AND ALUMNI GAMES

Throughout the 9 daylong event, AIE’s student work was prominently featured, with up to 10 student games from around the world showcased. Some of these titles included the historical-fantasy game ‘Legionfall’, the first-person shooter ‘Cosmosis’, and the VR action game ‘Defender of Seattle’. Like past years, this exposure at PAX gave students of AIE an amazing chance to showcase their games and their skills to a large audience and industry connections, giving them the opportunity to network, get feedback and find customers for some of their game projects. 

See more of AIE student and alumni games by visiting here: https://pax.aie.edu/student-games/.

LIVESTREAMS

A highlight of this year’s event was the livestream with one of Australia’s most prominent 3D and VFX Artists, Daryl Munton, who is also a lecturer at AIE Melbourne. Daryl has had a long and distinguished career working on some very well-known films including Star Wars, Avatar, King Kong and many more. Daryl Joined us to talk about Life in the Visual Effects Industry. 

While Livestreams were also held with 3D Modeler Lyle Dalgleish, Character Artist and AIE Alumni Benjamin Retter, and Nico King, founding member of games company ‘Chaos Theory Games’ who spoke about how to build a sustainable games studio. 

To see the AIE’s PAX Livestream with Daryl and the others, visit here: https://pax.aie.edu/livestream/ 

PAX PANEL

Along with our virtual booth AIE had the opportunity to host a PAX panel, “Making it in games!”. In this panel we spoke to AIE Alumni working across the industry both in small indie studios as well as AAA game studios talking about their journey into the industry. We found out how to stay current with a forever evolving industry and their thoughts on what makes a long and successful career within the games industry. 
Watch the panel by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFtJcYCMUhM